British progressive music veteran (known for his drumming and vocals in Soft Machine and Matching Mole, along his prolific solo career) Robert Wyatt's new album "Comicopera" is divided in three acts. First act, "Lost In Noise" is where Wyatt sings about personal topics and relationships with others. "Just As You Are", the second song from the act, is about betrayed love. This particular song is also Wyatt's melodicism at its best. The second act, "The Here and The Now" takes on the more political topic, in which Wyatt's disillusionment with the Anglo-American culture is blatantly apparent. Particularly alienating is the warmongering politics, which have planted all his everlasting hatred in Wyatt's heart, as he sings in the eerie "Out of the Blue". In protest to all the stupidity of British culture, the final act "Away With The Fairies" is sung in Spanish and Italian, rather than English.
As for the music itself, Comicopera is easily more accessible than the previous Wyatt albums. As with the two previous records, this album is defined by colorful instrumentation, personnel that is no less colorful (including his friends and other musicians from various countries) and eclectic brew of jazz, folk, pop and experimental music. It all sounds warmer and livelier than before. Easily up there with Wyatt's other masterpieces like "Rock Bottom".
*This review was published in Estonian in a journal called Postimees. This is the English translation
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